Wine for a true amateur (2016 – 2019)

 How I try to bring wining to Estonia, move to Luxembourg and do my very first vineyard tour in Australia

After the second year in France I started to appreciate wine. It was not anymore just a means to get some buzz in the head. It was a social drink, enjoyed on its own or with food and with food one really needs to know what to drink without ruining either the food or wine. I still followed the basic rule: white with fish and seafood, red with other meats. It was a start. I tried cooking with wine (onion soup with white wine, coq-au-vin with red, my version was a bit fake though, in the absence of the rooster, I used the chicken), I started drinking a glass or two during meals, first during dinner, then also during lunch. In Estonia, it was not so common to have a glass of wine with your lunch, especially in between university lectures. Maybe in restaurants but I rarely went there. So, when I took this lunchtime wine drinking habit back home, my ex worried that there may be a little alcohol problem going on.

I bought my very first wine book (“Wine: A tasting course. Every Class in a Glass” by Marnie Old) when browsing in a local bookstore cookbook section. By then I wanted to know more about this fascinating elixir that I had started to see from a brand new light.

To be honest, I never finished this book but as much as I remember it was very informative, maybe there was even a bit too much to take in for a beginner.

Around the same time, my mother started making homemade fruit and berry wines. Homemade wines do not have a good reputation. It’s because formerly, they were not elaborate drinks but hazy rather sour liquids, used to get drunk really cheap. My mother on the other hand bought books about home wines, equipment and invested time into her work that has become a true hobby. She would never sell her wines but we sometimes gift the better bottles to family friends and offer them for visitors to try. Unfortunately, as much as I like different wines, I have very little interest in homemade fruit wines. At the same time, my mother has no interest in grape wine.

When I finished my master’s studies in 2017, I asked for a wine diary as a present. I moved to Luxembourg a month and a half later and started filling the diary with new wines that I tried (again incredibly cheap). At least in the beginning. Soon I discovered that there isn’t much point to writing down info if there is no picture. The selection in the shops was huge. It would have been too annoying and time-consuming task to every time look up from the book which wines I have already tried. Also, I didn’t carry that book with me every time I drank wine with friends or I was just too lazy to fill it as it needs some time and effort. At that time, my descriptive vocabulary was also very limited. I was reading this diary with my boyfriend just last autumn and it was a joke to both of us. The comments were more or less like “sour, quite sweet, can taste something berry-like”. I do not know whether it was my lack of effort to be more thorough or I just did not know what to look for or expect. Could have been both.

One of my local friends introduced me to Vivino app. I used it exactly two times. I had a phone with very small memory space so I deleted all non-essential applications. I started regretting it two years later when I downloaded Vivino again and have been filling it quite diligently ever since. I really do wonder, how many wines would I have had there, had I kept using it.

In Luxembourg, my wine education bloomed. I discovered more French but also German and Luxembourgish wines. I met people from different countries who had different preferences. And I was curious. I started travelling to Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Italy and every time tried out as much local food and drinks as I could. I discovered Vinho Verde and different types of Port wine when travelling in Portugal and super sweet Pedro Ximénez in Spain.

In 2019 I went to Australia to visit my ex-boyfriend. Despite being French, he knew nothing of wines nor had much liking for them (was he even French?). But to please me, he organized a half day of vineyard tours. We visited five places and all together tasted around 35 wines.

Yabby Lake

Yabby Lake wines

 

Rare Hare

Polperro

There was one white wine that had very pronounced aroma and flavour of jalapeno. It was 2017 Polperro Fumé Blanc from Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Vivino score: 3.6

PT Leo Estate

Quealy and its colourful happy wine bottles

From my notes I read that I found the visits extremely interesting and educational. I had never thought that for example a Shiraz from a same producer can taste completely different from one vintage to another. It does make sense though. Some years are sunnier than others, some are cold, some are rainy. But I had never thought about this detail before nor would I know when buying wine how good year it had been. According to my comments, I saw this event as an opening of my taste buds. After being explained what I can smell and taste in different wines, I discovered that I indeed could taste pepper, chocolate or honey and distinguish red and black fruits. I became interested in developing my senses.

Unfortunately, we did not visit any more vineyards. I bought wines from bottle shops (that’s what they call liquor stores in Australia) whenever I could and discovered one of the best rosé wines that I had had so far. Unfortunately, no record of what it was. Again, why hadn’t I kept using Vivino...